(Noun). An offensive ethnic slur for a Jew.
There are a couple of potential explanations as to the origin of this unpleasant term.
One suggests that the term was coined by German Jews who had already assimilated into American society as a put-down for more recent Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe because many Eastern European Jewish surnames ending in with -ki or -ky. It was later adopted by non-Jews as a more general derogatory slur.
The second suggests that the term originated at Ellis Island. Here, many of the Jewish migrants arriving from Europe were illiterate. Traditionally, illiterate people would sign their name with a cross, but Jewish people would often refuse to use this because of its associations with Christianity – ands so they signed with a small circle instead. The Yiddish word for circle is kikel, or kikeleh for little circle. So the immigration officials called anyone who signed with a circle a kikeleh, or kikee and eventually, kike.
Coincidentally, the British had a similar and equivalent slur in the 19th century. Here, the words ike or ikey were used. These however had a more prosaic etymology – they were both derivations of the common Jewish name, Isaac.
Similar meaning: Jew, Yid.
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